Conference Agenda

In the past decades, illegal gold mining has sharply increased in the Tropics. Despite its importance in sustaining livelihoods, it creates negative externalities like increases in malaria due to increasing the habitat suitable for mosquitos. However, the impact of illegal gold mining on malaria remains largely unexplored. Using a 6-year panel dataset at the municipality level and heterogeneity-robust difference-in-differences estimators, we provide evidence of the impact of illegal gold mining on malaria incidence in the Brazilian Amazon, an understudied location with increasing illegal gold mining and high burden of malaria. We find that a 10% increase in illegal gold mining leads to, on average, an increase of 515 malaria cases per 100,000 inhabitants annually. This increase does not seem to be explained by increases in population density or decreases in health expenditures, or deforestation. This increase in malaria transmission translates into social costs ranging from US$39,434 to US$1,725,971 annually due to increases in mortality, cost of treatment, and foregone wages. Our analysis highlights the social cost of unregulated gold mining and the need for the adoption and enforcement of monitoring and mitigation practices concomitant of mining.